


Pale Moonlight

by Leticheecopae



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Angst, Comfort, Fighting, Friendship beginning, Huntings, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-26
Updated: 2016-10-26
Packaged: 2018-08-27 01:36:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8382796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leticheecopae/pseuds/Leticheecopae
Summary: Equius is finally getting to see how Nepeta, a lower-blooded troll he has been talking to for a while now, lives. While at first, he finds it absolutely barbaric, by the end of the night he learns that there is more strength in the tiny troll than he had thought possible.





	

**Author's Note:**

> A commission that came from inkyopolis and I had tons of fun working on this! I don't write these two often, so I do hope I wrote them alright!

The night is beautiful. The temperature is just warm enough that a coat is not needed but cool enough that if they were to stop moving and sit beneath the trees they could catch a chill. Nepeta bounds ahead of Equius and comes back and she checks over the marks on the trees that he does not understand; his feet falling at a subdued pace.

Tweet-beasts surround the two trolls as they walk, singing out their evening songs while Nepeta leads Equius around her hunting grounds.The heavy woods cast more shadows throughout the forest floor, and Equius finds himself debating on removing his glasses. They are meant to keep sparks and metal shards out of his eyes. Out here, beyond his workroom, they are little more than a nuisance.

“This seems like a little far out for you to stray.” He turns his head to look back, her hive, nothing more than a cave she has renovated, is a lump that he can just make out through the tree branches. It’s much harder to see now, however, what with the branches getting thicker the further they move away.

Nepeta pauses and looks back at him, face confused. “But we’re still close enough to see the cave. If I yowled right now Ponce De Leon could still hear me.”

“Well, yes, but when you said you hunt close to home I thought you wouldn’t be venturing much further than this.” Not that Equius really understands how close ‘this’ is.

“If I hunted too close to home then I’d nevfur find anything. A good huntress knows never to hunt outside her door, otherwise, all of the prey will run away.” She gives him a smile over her shoulder as she continues to hike through the trees.

“You could also do like many of us and just order your protein like a sane troll.”

“But where’s the fun in that?” she pouts. “Stalking a box sounds boring.”

“Yes, but it would be much safer.”

“But, that’s so lame. I don’t understand why you wouldn’t want to to get your paws dirty and catch your own food. It’s so much more fun!” She gives a little spin. “You can be whoever you want and let the game whisker you away while stalking the prey.” She comes towards him, mimicking an animal stalking forwards as she grins up at him. Equius does not smile back.

“Because, Nepeta, my ‘paws’ get dirty enough when I work in my laboratory. And the ordered or bought food is just as good, and easier to consume than having to clean everything like you claim to do.” He tosses his mane of hair back a bit as he continues. “And creating sparring partners with a failsafe is much more sustainable than attempting to fight creatures that could be stronger than yourself without a way to keep yourself safe. I can give them so many different fighting styles and strengths; out here you have no clue what you will run into. At least I know what I am up against.”

“Laaaaaame,” Nepeta lets out, voice sing-song.

Equius’s back straightens. “How, Nepeta, is that lame?”

 

“Because,” Nepeta replies as she goes to scuttle up a tree. “What’s the fun in knowing what you’re up against? None! I would prefur to fight a beast that I only know a little about, from my own scouting and stalking, then make something I know everything about. Besides, if you can just shut them off, then how do you efur really get better? What’s the point?”

“It’s called training my limits,” Equius replies with a sniff. “And who says I’ve ever had to use the switch.”

“Then why even install it?” She sits in the tree, eyes squinted as she looks out over the forest.

Equius feels sweat start to drip down his back. “Because, Nepeta, while you seem to have no actual feelings of self-preservation, I do not leave my life up to chance.”

“And that’s why you're lame.” She sticks her tongue out at him between a smile.

Equius feels more sweat drip down his spine while he looks up at Nepeta. She pulls her tongue back into her mouth before looking out into the forest.

“Well then, if you insist on throwing away your pitiful short life, then I won’t stop you.” Equius turns on his heel and starts to walk away.

“Equius,” Nepeta calls after him. “I was only joking. Can’t you take a joke?”

“There is no joking when a lower caste member shows disrespect to their superior,” Equius calls back as he heads the way they came. He only makes it a short distance before Nepeta drops down in front of him, arms crossed. It startles him, but he does his best not to show his discomfort at her getting the literal drop on him.

“Come on, Equius, you’re the one who wanted to see how I survive with Ponce De Leon. So if anyone is being disrespectfur right now, it’s you.” She stands before him, a good head and a half shorted in her seven sweep-old body. Equius shifts on his feet, feels sweat pouring down his face as her eyes stay locked onto him.

“So far you have only thing you have shown me is that you take unnecessary risks with your life when you should be living at the same level as your fellow low-bloods.”

“You mean live to the standards you set for us,” she grumbles before turning around and heading towards the woods.

“What did you say?” Equius snaps after her.

“Go home, Equius,” she calls back. “This isn’t fun anymore and I still need to get food before sun-up.”

Equius watches her jump upwards into the trees, run along a branch, and then disappear into the higher branches.

“Nepeta,” Equius calls after her. “Nepeta, I demand that you come back here. This insolence is just the kind of behavior I am talking about!”

He hears a ruffling of leaves, but Nepeta does not come back.

Equius stands beneath the trees, the light of the moons dripping down to cast strange patterns all around him. He crosses his arms, eyes squinting into the branches as he tries to find her.

“And here I thought I could fill a possible quadrant with you,” he murmurs. “But this absolute disregard for your superiors is nothing pitying, it can’t even be seen as black, it is just purely obsolescence and I will not stand for it.” Equius says the last bit just loud enough so she can possibly hear him, but when there is no response, he turns away from the direction she had left and starts to walk. He’ll have to go back to the cave and pack up all of his items and then walk through the forest to the closest bus stop to take him back to the train station for the mountains. If he hurries, he’ll be able to get there before the sun comes up. He does have a traveling cloak for the sun, but he prefers not to wear it. It always ends up being soaked by the time he removes it.

As he walks, a small beast suddenly skitters out in front of him. It is a scale beast, with four little legs that end in tiny claws. He jumps slightly, watches the beast stare at him with its tiny yellow eyes, and then it runs quickly past.

“How could she even compare my fine tuned creations to this idiocy?” he grumbles as he watches it slip under some leaves and kicks a clod of dirt after it. “Having a contingency plan and procuring a victory is smarter than leaving everything to chance.” And it’s not like he doesn’t take chances, he tells himself. He creates robots that could possibly beat him, maybe, but only because there is a chance he could meet a stronger low-blood, or blue-blood, to fight one day. But that is what they are for, to train him, and keep him as sharp as the tools he uses to create them. And while it is true he makes them mostly strength based, that doesn’t mean he doesn’t throw in differences sometimes. Like claws or teeth, but he’s also done things like saws and projectiles.

“I’m not lame,” he murmurs to the shadows around him. Even in his ears, the words don’t sound completely sure, and it makes his frown carve further into his face. He looks up at the tree-tops, blinks, and stops. Where had the cave top gone?

Equius turns slowly, eyes scanning the tops of the trees. He had just been staring at the landmark a short time ago, how did he lose it? He finally reaches up and removes his glasses, hoping that maybe removing the dark glass will let him see better through the branches.

“Darn it all,” he murmurs as he slowly turns. He can no longer find anything through the tree leaves besides the moons. “Green rises in the east and Pink in the west,” he murmurs as he starts to go towards the green moon, but then pauses. “Or was it pink is easy and green is west?” He stands beneath the trees and tries to remember the saying that Nepeta had taught him. She had said knowing the directions was important for her hunting, along with the weather patterns. He hadn’t paid too much attention to the information. Equius didn’t need to know things like that to create his sparring partners.

Something makes the leaves in the tree next to him shift, and Equius throws a punch. The trunk of the tree shudders as his fist sinks into the wood. A small, fluffy-tailed beast falls from the tree and hits the ground running. It scurries quickly away with a chittering as he stands breathing deeply through his nose and his fist smashed through the bark.

“This is ridiculous,” he grumbles as he shakes the wood from his hand. Turning away from the tree, he looks towards the green moon and starts to walk. He moves with sure steps, heading through the woods towards Nepeta’s home, at least where he assumes it is.

He walks for a handful of minutes before his steps start to falter and he begins to doubt. Green or pink, should he be following the green or pink? Nepeta’s name begins to bubble up between his lips though he shuts it down quickly. He will not call for help. If she can do this then he most certainly can as well.

“All I need to do is find the cave.” Slowly he turns. “All I need is-”

A heavy weight hits Equius’s back and he smashes to the ground as he feels something sharp cut into his back. A cry flies from his mouth and he tries to spin. Equius feels the creature fly off of his back, but once he is up he can’t find anything around him. Blood drips down his back as he looks around, eyes searching for whatever had just grabbed him.

He falls into a fighting stance, hands at the ready to punch or grab whatever comes for him. Whatever it is that does, it’s too quick for him to respond.

Equius sees movement to his left just before he is hit. He swings, but the weight that hits him takes him off his feet before he can do much damage. More teeth bite into his upper arm, tearing into the muscle and making him scream.

The roar that comes from the trees eclipses any noise he could have made before the weight is lifted from him. Equius rolls onto his back, his eyes searching for whatever had grabbed him. What he finally spots snatches whatever words were going to come out of his mouth. The large beast is a gecko-lion. It’s body twists easily, it’s teeth and claws lashing out at speeds Equius has never seen before. He watches it dart in, twist, and a blur of gray dodging away.

“Nepeta,” he gasps as he watches her dodge and spin away from a claw and then her own claws come out. She brings one up, cuts through its chest, and then dances away. She lets out a cry as its tails snaps over her back like a whip, and olive blood wells up through her coat. She throws herself at it, cuts, and it lets out a scream as Nepeta snarls at it. The creature swipes back at her, snaps, and Equius barely sees the blur of Nepeta’s body. The gecko-lion’s head thuds against the ground as Nepeta stands over its carcass.

Nepeta’s chest heaves as she stands over the body of the beast. Equius holds his hand over his upper arm and staggers to his feet.

“Nepeta,” he says gently as she stares down at the body.

Nepeta looks up and Equius is stunned by the eyes he sees. They may still be the eyes of a young troll, not even a streak of color showing through the grey, but they look like nothing Equius has ever seen before. They are visceral, animal, and alone.

“Nepeta?”

She blinks, her head shakes slightly, and the happy eyes of the troll he had just physically met a few hours ago look up at him.

“Equius!” She quickly runs over. “Oh, no no no no. We need to get you back to the cave. I need to clean these out.”

“Nepeta,” Equius says gently as she tugs at him, a harsh limp in her step.

“Come on, please,” she pulls again, and Equius follows her. She limps harshly, her back dripping blood with each step as she pulls on Equius’s good arm. They set off in what seems to be a random direction for him but seemingly not for her. She doesn’t follow either moon.

“You’re hurt,” Equius murmurs as he stares at the blood soaking through the back of her clothing.

“This is nothing,” she replies over her shoulder with a clear smile despite her pain. “I’ve had worse.”

Equius can’t figure out a thing to say as a wave of pale feelings overcomes him.

Back in the cave, he is the one who gets to paint the diamond between them on her wall.


End file.
